Host & Guest / Nick Stewart & Friends

PALFREY is delighted to present Host & Guest / Nick Stewart & Friends, an exhibition celebrating the art, lives and friendships of Nick Stewart (1955-2020). 

Nick Stewart (born Winchester) was an artist, researcher, educator as well as a partner, father, friend and free-thinker. He studied philosophy and theology at the University of Oxford (BA 1976), and fine art at Goldsmiths, University of London (MA 2001, PhD 2013). He taught at the Royal Academy Schools.

His PhD thesis, titled Abstraction and Comedy, developed out of readings of Freud and Hegel in dialogue with his photographic work, examples of which are included in the exhibition. This strand of his work consisted of meticulously constructed paper models that were photographed to create ambiguously abstracted images. These are deliberately formal, serial and devoid of topographical context. They refer equally to architecture, signage, sculpture, product design and a milieu of generic late modernism that straddles multiple subcultures. Also included in the exhibition is a key example of Nick’s last works, which were a series of drawings and paintings of the house of the Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant.

Nick was a generous and affectionate friend and supporter to many, including the varied artists who have contributed to this exhibition.

2022, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 20 cm

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